Etymology

From + .

Noun

(In some senses pejorative, mildly vulgar.)

1. An ant.
2. An insignificant person.
3. A person who adheres strictly to a rule or policy despite current circumstances.

   Their super is a real pissant about break times.

4. A person seemingly incapable of focusing on anything but the trivial, especially in the sense of trivial or irrelevant criticism.

Quotations

2005: “Everyone is saying, ‘You can’t be serious about targeting Iran. Look at Iraq,’” the former intelligence official told me. “But they say, ‘We’ve got some lessons learned—not militarily, but how we did it politically. We’re not going to rely on agency pissants.’ No loose ends, and that’s why the C.I.A. is out of there.” — The New Yorker, 24 & 31 January 2005

"It is the beauty of well designed fascism that it gives every piss-ant an ant hill to piss from" PJ O'Rourke, "Democracy in its diapers" in "Give war a chance" (Picador (pub) 1993)